A/N: I'd like to offer a quick thank you to anyone who has stuck with the story so far! I appreciate the time you've invested, and I truly hope you've enjoyed what you've read - I know I've had a wonderful time developing the events that have unfolded thus far. However, I admit that I struggled quite a lot in formulating and writing this chapter. If any kind soul would like to offer some feedback on the content I would be extremely grateful - if not, thank you again for sticking with me this far!

A Fire Inside

Loki sat hunched over the edge of his cot, his fingertips firmly but gently massaging his temples. Mental forays across the realms always gave him terrible headaches. No matter how powerful his magic happened to be, and it was powerful, there was nothing he could do to combat the energy needed to constantly maintain a convincing illusion on an entirely separate realm as well as project his consciousness that far through space. There was also the small matter of constantly shielding himself from Heimdall's gaze. That would have been difficult enough without having to be in two places, and be two people, at the same time.

To make matters worse, he rarely devoted his full attention to any of these things anymore save for those occasions when Asgard truly needed him. Contrary to popular belief, Loki cared about the good of his realm. Like Odin, there was a purpose to everything he did. There had been a purpose behind his actions the day he let the Frost Giants into Asgard to forestall his brother's coronation, there had been a purpose to his actions when he faked his death on Svartalfheim, and there had been a purpose to his actions when he revealed himself to the Avengers.

There had been a purpose to his actions the other night, when he refrained from snapping Agent Romanoff's neck, he just hadn't discovered what it was yet.

Days had gone by since that incident, and still his thoughts so frequently returned to it. When he closed his eyes, he could still feel her shoulders pressed against his chest, her curls gently bobbing in time with her breathing. Her warm skin beneath his cool fingers. The shameful, almost cold look in her eye as she finally broke away from him and stalked from his cell.

He couldn't understand how she was able to crawl so far beneath his skin, how she was able to stick in his thoughts like a poisoned arrow, at once maddening and confusing him like no mortal should. Each time they spoke, it was like entering into a verbal chess game. She would move tentatively forward, he would play the aggressor. She would defend. He would move forward. She would play the aggressor. He would attack in turn. She would match his advance, over and over until they stood head to head, locked in an infuriating stalemate time and time again.

In all his thousand some-odd years, Loki had never met another creature capable of seeing through him, of standing up to him as she did. His mother, perhaps, but even Frigga always believed the best of him. Natasha...she was no optimist. She believed in what was, not in what should be.

And then a thought struck him.

"You're just as ugly as I am. Never forget that."

The corners of the god's lips curled upward.

Natasha's steps were light, measured. The soft soles of her boots made not a whisper over the cold concrete. Her catsuit was zipped up a little higher than was customary. The fingers of her right hand rested close to the grip of the gun holstered to her slender thigh.

Her expression belied none of the rage that had controlled her during her last visit.

To say that Loki had compromised her would be to sell the situation far short of her reality. She realized that now. For decades her methods involved getting a little too close to her targets, assimilating herself into their lives in every way before taking what she wanted from them, but this situation was getting out of hand. It was too difficult to maintain control around him when half the time she could hardly tell whether she was staring into his smoldering green eyes or her own.

It was stupid to tempt fate yet again, but this was something she needed to do for herself.

The assassin approached the faint glow surrounding Loki's cell, the light slowly illuminating her porcelain features, her fiery hair, the shadows that had collected below her eyes. She resisted the temptation to glance through the glass and instead continued to the door, unsealing it with the press of her hand. The portal swung open with its familiar hiss, and she stepped inside.

Loki didn't look up immediately as she moved to stand before him, arms crossed over her chest. He sat watching the floor for several moments before his shoulders straightened and he turned his face up to regard her. He was already smiling, the expression full of knowledge, full of mischief. "I hadn't expected to see you again, Agent Romanoff," he purred.

She was silent.

"After your last...visit...I daresay I did not think you would be brave enough to return," he continued. When still she didn't speak, he added, "Still so cold, Agent...and here I believed we were past this."

"What made you believe that?" she ventured, although she knew it was a bold question.

Loki flashed her that chaotic grin. "Well, for starters, you are here," he began, his voice amused, arrogant. "You visit me regularly...often...You bring me gifts, take me to spend time outside of my cell although I have little doubt that everyone attempted to convince you it was foolish...You show me pieces of yourself that you would not show even your beloved archer..."

Natasha's stomach turned uncomfortably, but she gave no indication that he was making her nervous.

"Come now, Agent," Loki continued to purr, his low voice soft as he moved to stand. Within moments he towered over her and her head tilted back to allow him to fill her field of vision. "You must have known I would figure it out," he continued, taking a small step toward her. She eyed him warily, but he didn't stop his advance. "I wonder what happened to make you so angry...to fill you with such rage that you could not trust yourself with any of your precious friends. What could have possibly driven you here, into the waiting arms of your enemy? Is there really no one else in your pathetic life that you could turn to?"

Natasha continued to back away from Loki, each of their small steps coming in time with one another.

"But you choose to be alone, do you not? To let someone in, to share your secrets, would be to show weakness, and you cannot allow your friends to think you fragile...I would wager that you keep Agent Barton, who would love more than any to know what truly lies beneath this uniform, as far away from your cold heart as possible...He could never understand what you are...If he could, then you would not be here..."

Loki's voice trailed away as Natasha's back connected with the glass barrier. The sudden collision startled her, just enough to make the muscles in her neck twitch with surprise, but Loki didn't miss it. The corners of his mouth curled further upward, his bright eyes smoldering.

She was drawn into his gaze. Before it occurred to her to react, to attempt to get away from him, he was already continuing, "You are a creature of the dark, Natalia...You are drawn to me because I am in the dark beside you. I know you...and that frightens you so badly you cannot stay away."

Loki closed the gap between them, his chest brushing against Natasha's crossed arms. She instinctively recoiled, pulled her arms back and got her hands between them, her palms pressing back against his rib cage. His velvety voice continued to swirl through her head as she tried to figure out how he knew these things, how he saw through her as though she were as transparent as the glass at her back. A strand of panic began to wind itself around her brain stem, elevating her heart rate slightly and restricting her breathing. Her lips parted a fraction and her eyelids fluttered.

Loki's hands connected with either side of her waist and she drew in a sharp breath. "Like a moth to a flame you flutter around me, at once compelled to look yet afraid of what you will see," he went on, his low voice growing husky, heavy. Millimeter by millimeter he leaned closer to her. His hands began to sneak lower over her hips. "You try to bury what you are, but the past is seldom content to remain underground. It digs its way out, clawing and screaming for recognition," Loki all but whispered as his chest connected with hers and his hands slid ever lower, gliding firmly over the curves of her body.

He seized her backside without warning and pressed himself flush against her, the sudden contact forcing Natasha's eyes wide as she drew in a shocked gasp. Her hands clenched reflexively around the leather straps of his armor, her cheeks flushed and a chill tore up her spine, her small body shuddering in what limited space Loki had allowed her between himself and the glass. "Is this not what you came here for?" he purred gently, his breath cool against her ear. "To seek out the flame? To face what you are? I will show you, Natasha...in exquisite detail...the monster lurking beneath your beautiful flesh."

Natasha's head tilted back and she swallowed hard, the quietest moan slipping between her lips as she exhaled. Her fingers tightened around his armor as she squirmed against him, her thoughts clouded, her instincts fuzzy and delayed.

She released her Widow's Bites and Loki convulsed for several seconds before he stumbled away from her a couple steps, his movements clumsy and his eyes unfocused. The shock would have brought any mortal down, but he was no mortal and Natasha knew she needed to move quickly. Bracing a hand against the barrier, she threw her weight into the air, her legs arcing over her head to kick Loki across the face twice in quick succession. The blows caught him off guard enough that he stumbled yet again, a hand coming up to grope for something to hold onto while he continued to reel from the electric shock.

The door closed behind Natasha in seconds, and by the time Loki gained his footing she was already stepping into the elevator at the end of the hall. She walked straight to the back of it and planted both palms against the metal wall, bracing herself as she lowered her head and sucked in several fast, deep breaths. Her legs and arms shook and her head buzzed from the close encounter. She could practically still feel Loki standing against her, pinning her to the glass, his cold breath grazing her neck, his silky voice curling in her ear.

"I will show you, Natasha...in exquisite detail...the monster lurking beneath your beautiful flesh."

She let out a shaky breath and lowered the zipper of her catsuit. A flame flickered in her core that seemed to warm the entire, tiny elevator, and it terrified her.